Christine and Gerry know the north-west of Scotland very well, but have not spent a lot of time in Ullapool apart from passing through it, so we stayed fairly close to home during their visit. We went on a boat trip on the Shearwater, which is a two and a half hour trip out to and around the Summer Isles. It was tremendous. The skipper was very informative and we got a good look at one of the sea eagles through Gerry’s binoculars. The Summer Isles are beautiful at this time of year, covered in short green grass with sea caves and red rocks. We cruised around and got a good look at Tanera Mor which is currently undergoing development into a luxury tourist resort. It looks as if it’s being done in keeping with its surroundings which is good. On the way back towards Ullapool the skipper put the boat into full throttle because he had received reports of a pod of dolphins at the mouth of the loch. We slowed right down when we reached them and they were delightful, there must have been at least twenty dolphins leaping in and out of the water around the boat. What a bonus on our already very enjoyable boat tour!
The rest of the week flew by. We went on a drive to Lochinver along the coastal route via Achiltibuie from where we got a very good view of the Summer Isles again. We stopped at the Fisk Gallery which stocks crafts and paintings made within ten miles of it, and then had a light lunch sitting in the sunshine outside Am Fuaran Bar which is a tiny little pub in an amazing setting just a little further along the Coigach peninsula. We spent the afternoon sunbathing at Achnahaird Beach. I went into the water but only up to my waist, the water wasn’t too cold but the waves were quite high. As we left the beach a herd of black sheep came walking across the sand; they looked very beautiful.
We had dinner at Peet’s in Lochinver and very nice it was too, every dish was cooked to perfection.
In Ullapool, Christine and I visited the lighthouse and had lunch at the Ceilidh Place while James and Gerry went up Ullapool Hill. We all visited Corrieshalloch Gorge and on Christine and Gerry’s last night we had dinner at the Arch Inn which was very good, although the waitress kind of forgot us and didn’t offer us the dessert menu, and then panicked when she realised that she had left us to go over our allotted two hour slot. We were hurried out of the restaurant but we were in good spirits and didn’t mind, we had cake and ice lollies back at the cottage.
When Christine and Gerry left to continue their holiday in the Western Isles on Sunday morning, we said goodbye to them down at the car queue for the ferry and then James and I went back to the cottage where we sat outside with a cup of tea and waved goodbye again as the ferry passed us on its way to Stornaway. We couldn’t see them but Christine messaged me to say that they had also been waving from inside the ferry as they passed the cottage.
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